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Sentience vs Autonomy - What's the difference?

sentience | autonomy |

As nouns the difference between sentience and autonomy

is that sentience is the state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness while autonomy is self-government; freedom to act or function independently.

sentience

English

Noun

(-)
  • The state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness.
  • * 1903 , , The Jewel of Seven Stars , ch. 5:
    • [T]he shadows . . . presently began to seem, as on last night, to have a sentience of their own.
  • * 2007 Dec. 28, Alexandra Silver, " Did This Tiger Hold a Grudge?," Time :
    • The science of animal sentience is far from a firm one; there's no way of knowing exactly what any animal is feeling.

    Related terms

    * sentiency * sentient * pansentience

    autonomy

    English

    Noun

  • Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
  • (label) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
  • (label) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
  • (label) The status of a church whose highest-ranking bishop is appointed by the patriarch of the mother church, but which is self-governing in all other respects. Compare autocephaly.

    • Synonyms

    * (self-government) nationhood, nationality, sovereignty, independence

    Antonyms

    * (self-government) dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability * (capacity to make independent decisions) heteronomy, incapacity

    Derived terms

    * autonomic * autonomous, autonomously